Mike Whaley: Record in sight, but Rachel Hill remains the same

Tuesday

Sep 11, 2012 at 3:15 AMSep 11, 2012 at 10:03 AM

The rarefied air that Rachel Hill is approaching does not, quite honestly, take her breath away.

The Somersworth High School senior forward has scored 127 career goals, 20 short of the New Hampshire girls' high school soccer record held by Courtney Banghart, the current Princeton University women's basketball coach. Banghart tallied 147 goals at Souhegan High School in Amherst from 1992 to 1995.

Barring injury, Rachel will likely break Banghart's mark early next month. She has scored eight thus far this season in a 3-0 start for the Hilltoppers. But the numbers mean very little to her. Rachel's game is predicated, as it should be, on team first. There are no visions of numbers dancing in her head.

"I really don't think about it, to be honest," Rachel said after a recent 5-0 win over Prospect Mountain (she scored four goals). "Now I couldn't tell you what the record is. It's not something I really think about. I just play every game like it's another one."

"We don't talk about it," said Somersworth coach Nick O'Brien. "It's there when it's there. It really doesn't matter to her until maybe it happens."

Those who have been lucky enough to watch Rachel play have not only seen a talented player, but one who plays with class, grace, power, intelligence and passion. She does it right. There is no fist pumping, no wild gesticulations. There are, however, plenty of smiles all around, from Hill to her happy teammates.

"She is what she is," O'Brien said. "She's an excellent player. I know I've said this every year and we're going into her fourth year, but she's an excellent teammate. She's a great kid."

Her dad, Mike Hill, gets emotional talking about Rachel and her approach to the game.

"What really makes me proud is to her the whole team is important," he said, his voice slightly breaking. "No matter what, you respect the whole team."

Rachel Hill certainly does that. She may have scored three, four or five goals in a given game, but you never get the feeling that she's making constant runs and barraging the net with shot after shot. Her scoring comes in the flow of the game and there are plenty of touches to teammates.

"The thing that gets me is that she keeps setting up her teammates time and time again," O'Brien said. "She's an excellent player, a great kid. I can't say enough."

Sometimes she's too unselfish for her dad's liking, especially when the game is in the balance. "This is me talking as a coach," he said, "but there are times when it's crunch time and she has the best chance of scoring, she needs to keep the ball and she gives it off to someone who might not be able to score. It doesn't happen often. Overall, she makes the right decisions."

Banghart, when contacted by Foster's last week, did not know that Hill was approaching her record. Nonetheless, she was tickled.

"I think records are there to be broken," said Banghart, who, like Hill, was a three-sport standout in high school (she played basketball at Dartmouth College). "It continues the game and it continues the growth of the game. It connects the present to the past."

Although Hill is rapidly closing in on the past, her sole concern is about the present and getting her Hilltopper team to rise to the next level in Division III. The past three seasons, Somersworth has had winning seasons, won a playoff game, but lost each time in the quarterfinal round. This year, Hill and the Hilltoppers are focused on getting to the semifinals and beyond.

"Our focus in practice is what's really going to do it," she said. "Yeah, everyone shows up for practices and goes through the motions. But this year we need to buckle down and focus on what we're doing and then take it into the game."

Rachel comes from a soccer family. Her dad, Mike Hill, is a Pennsylvania native and played soccer at the United States Air Force Academy. Her older brother, Zach, was a two-time all-state player for the Somersworth boys team (he's following in his dad's footsteps and is now attending Air Force), and her younger brother, Jake, is currently a sophomore on the boys team. Her grandfather on her dad's side was a college soccer player and also a college coach with stops at Fairleigh Dickinson University (N.J.), Muhlenberg College (Pa.) and Kutztown University (Pa.).

How good is Rachel? Good enough that she has accepted a full scholarship from the University of Connecticut, which plays in the Big East Conference, to attend their school and play soccer.

Mike Hill also started the ROSO youth soccer program in 1998, which benefits young soccer players from Rollinsford and Somersworth. His children have benefited from a program that started with 74 kids and now annually provides a soccer outlet for more than 400 children.

All the Hill kids have gone up through the ranks with ROSO Soccer Club, and Rachel benefited by playing with the boys up through the U13 level because her dad didn't want to coach two teams. Even today, Mike Hill makes sure his children give back to ROSO by helping out on Saturday mornings.

In second grade, Mike Hill tells the story of Rachel setting a school record for pull-ups. At home, the Hills have a pull-up bar in their barn and Mike did 26. Rachel did 27.

She is fiercely competitive, blessed with great speed and leg strength, and with a relentless work ethic. But she is also very intelligent, something that's not lost on the opposition.

"She's smart," says Prospect Mountain coach Matt Locke, shaking his head with a smile during a recent loss to Somersworth. "She's thinking one step ahead of the play. When the ball comes, she's already thinking what she's going to do with it. ¿ Somebody's taught her well."

Mike Hill remembers when Rachel was younger she would go too hard at times.

"I'd pull her out and say that and that you're not smiling and you're not going in until you do," he said. "You're trying to do it all yourself, and you can't. Go back in there and be a player and smile. It's a team game."

Which, of course, Rachel completely understands [now]. When she preps for a game, it starts with her teammates.

"The huddle at the beginning, I try to get all the girls going and get them ready to go, excited to play," she said. "I keep it positive and don't get down on anybody."

No record number can replace that.

Mike Whaley is the Sports Editor for Foster's Daily Democrat and the Rochester Times. He can be reached at mwhaley@fosters.com.